O thou who hast taught us that we are most truly free when we lose our wills in thine: Help us to attain to this liberty by continual surrender unto thee; that walking in the way which thou hast prepared for us, we may find our life in doing thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Of old thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They will perish, but thou dost endure; they will all wear out like a garment. Thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away; but thou art the same, and thy years have no end.

–Psalm 102:25-27

Great cover pic.twitter.com/YC3s9BAg3q

— Alex White (@AlexWhite1812) June 24, 2016

There are better and worse reasons for voting to leave and voting to remain. Thus, it is the responsibility of evangelicals to find the best in the arguments they disagree with.

There is a danger when Christians try to play a trump card, such as: “My case is better for missions”; “my case is better for defending Christian freedoms”; “my case enables me to love my neighbor”; “my case frees us from secular un-Christian institutions.” These arguments try to shut down debate. You can love your neighbor and want to vote to leave. And you can believe the EU is a deeply secular institution often intolerant towards Christians, and still believe that membership is best.

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Nearly 200 people who fled Boko Haram attacks have died of malnutrition and sickness in a single camp in northeastern Nigeria in the past month, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday, describing a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency.”

In the camp, which sits on the outskirts of the largely ruined Nigerian city of Bama, the charity said that the local authorities reported five to six people dying every day.

“We have been told that people, including children there, have starved to death,” Ghada Hatim, the group’s head of mission in Nigeria, said in a statement.

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For more than thirty years now I have been an observer and sometime participant in what I will here call the conservative Episcopalian mess. The departure of more orthodox Episcopalians from an apostatizing mainstream headed by weak and clownish English archbishops and astoundingly aggressive heretics in North America, contained no real surprises, for this is the predictable fruit of religious liberalism hatched upon an ignorant, passive, and venal laity, that we have seen in other major Protestant churches, and from which modern Roman Catholicism, especially under a Nice Pope, is unlikely to be much of a refuge.

What I have found somewhat surprising, I suppose because my knowledge of the ecclesial geography was not very deep early on, was what a hard time conservative Anglicans have had getting their act (literally) together. Now to be sure, my “geographical” knowledge has increased over the years, so that I understand quite well that “conservative” applies to a number of incompatible or barely compatible attitudes….

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

The Rev. Canon Andrew White has been suspended with pay by the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East pending the findings of a Charity Commission Statutory Enquiry. The Foundation is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities. It would be inappropriate to comment further on an active investigation other than to say that the Foundation believe at this stage that the alleged incident stemmed from a genuine desire by Canon White to help others.

Read it all and there is a statement from the Charity Commission here

The former ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ Canon Andrew White has been suspended as the president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME).

In a statement on his Facebook page Canon White said it was because of “some inaccurate statements I made”.

The charity, that he founded, said he was suspended with pay after the Charity Commission launched an inquiry.

“The Foundation is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities,” FRRME said in a statement.

It added: “It would be inappropriate to comment further on an active investigation other than to say that the Foundation believe at this stage that the alleged incident stemmed from a genuine desire by Canon White to help others.”

Canon White said his comments referred to the charity’s work with girls taken by Islamic State to work as slaves.

“What is clear is that at no time did we pay money to any terrorists,” the clergyman stressed.

He added: “Whilst I cannot work on behalf of the FRRME I continue to lead worship and support individuals that we are helping. Please pray for us at this very difficult time.”

The Charity Commission confirmed it had launched an inquiry but told Premier it cannot comment further because the investigation is live.

FRRME’s accounts for 2014 show it made £3,032,097 and spent £1,879,670. It has seven members of staff.

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… at the heart of the heart of the edifice, in the center of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, they will lift the slab where millions of pilgrims have knelt and prayed, where the salt of tears and the wet of sweat have smoothed and worried the hardest stone.

And for the first time in more than 200 years, they will look inside…

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All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.

–C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960), p.137

Retired military dogs that are being put up for adoption are getting a second life alongside the soldiers they served with ”” thanks to Molli Oliver. Watch it all.

Our engagement in the world in an anxious age is made possible by our confidence in the gospel in a pluralistic society where people have profoundly different beliefs. We won’t always be able to persuade those around us that our beliefs are right and theirs are wrong. Indeed, some of our most important beliefs stem from contested premises that others do not share. But recognizing the existence of these disagreements should not prevent us from holding to what is ultimately true. Our beliefs can be true, and we can hold these warranted beliefs confidently even though others reject them. For this reason, recognizing the social fact of difference should not be mistaken as relativism. To the contrary, a greater awareness of our distinctiveness that comes from confidence in the gospel can encourage us to work to strengthen the social fabric for the good of others.

This kind of posture is what one of us has called “confident pluralism.” As Christians, we can engage with the pluralism around us because our confidence lies elsewhere. We can acknowledge genuine differences in society without suppressing or minimizing our firmly held convictions. We can seek common ground even with those who may not share our view of the common good.

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We are told too, with the gun of moral blackmail held to our temples, that Europe’s strategic order will unravel if we pick at the EU thread, but this an evasion. The EU is unraveling already because the status quo is intolerable and a failed currency project is sapping its credibility. It is far from self-evident that this supranational venture should be saved in anything like its existing form.

There are certainly grave threats to the world economy, but none have anything to do with Brexit. China’s latest mini-boom is already topping, and nobody knows whether the Communist Party has reached the limits of its $28 trillion experiment with credit.

We are seven years into this global cycle and signs of ageing are too obvious to ignore, not least the collapse in US bond yields to depression levels. “More Economic Signs Point to a US Recession”, warned a front-page headline across the Wall Street Journal this week. The labour market has buckled. Car sales have slipped. Business investment and profits are both falling….But whether we vote Leave or Remain will not change any of this. All we can do when the next global recession hits is to fall back on Britain’s tested institutions and our own elected Parliament to protect us. The EU certainly can’t.

Read it all from the Telegraph.

Lift up our hearts, we beseech thee, O Christ, above the false show of things, above fear, above laziness, above selfishness and covetousness, above custom and fashion, up to the everlasting truth and order that thou art; that so we may live joyfully and freely, in faithful trust that thou art our Saviour, our example, and our friend, both now and for evermore.

O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually!

–Psalm 105:1-4

Government ministers, campaigners and Anglican leaders are staying silent on the future of the Christ Church Cathedral, months after an announcement on the quake-damaged building was expected.

Once outspoken restoration campaigner Jim Anderton is sticking to an agreement not to make any public comments while a community campaign group is now agitating for information.

The Anglican cathedral has been sitting damaged in Christchurch’s city centre for more than five years, with no clear decision on its possible fate. The Government last year appointed mediator Miriam Dean, QC, in an attempt to break deadlock over the building.,,,

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The Bishop of Makamba, the Rt Revd Martin Blaise Nyaboho, has been elected as the fourth Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi. Bishop Martin will succeed Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, who has led the church since 2005, when he is installed on 21 August.

The 61-year-old bishop, a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council (2005 to 2009) was baptized in 1965 and confirmed in July 1969. He was ordained a deacon in 1985 and a priest four years later. He was consecrated in 1997, becoming the first Bishop of Makamba

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From The Daily Telegraph letters
SIR – This wire that the referendum result is coming down to – is it anywhere near the plate that we must all step up to on Thursday?

Adrian Williams
Oxford

The Chairman and fellow Primates of the GAFCON Council are pleased to announce that the third GAFCON conference will be held in Jerusalem in 2018.

Jerusalem has a special place in the hearts of the GAFCON movement as it was the location of the first conference in 2008. Moreover, Jerusalem stands as a constant reminder of the birth of the Gospel and the movement’s determination to remain true to the teachings of our Lord and his Holy Word.

GAFCON was greatly blessed by both the initial conference and the second meeting in Nairobi in 2013. When Anglicans from across the Communion come together in unity it is a tremendous blessing, and we are excited to see the Church built up in the land where it was given its foundation.

Dates and further details will be announced in due course.

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..Parts of the Anglican Communion continue to be in turmoil as the unbiblical theological and moral viruses of Western Churches and the secular culture continue to spread and divide the Church. The revisionist agenda is well-funded, and there is a strategic effort on their part to target under-resourced Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

As you know, the Archbishop of Canterbury called a meeting of the Primates of the Communion last January to discuss the discipline of the Episcopal Church for changing its marriage canon, and to see if we could find a way to hold together as a Communion. I was invited, and with the rest of the GAFCON and Global South Primates, attended the Canterbury gathering in good faith. We left the meeting believing that, while all we had hoped for had not been accomplished, at least something potentially positive had come out of the meeting to restore Godly order and discipline to the Communion. However, since that time the developments have not been positive, and as the Chair of GAFCON, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, said recently, “our hope has been brought low.”

Since the Canterbury Gathering in January, the agreements that were made have not been honored. We in the Anglican Church in North America are committed to remaining faithful to the teaching and fellowship of the Apostles as found in the Bible, to Biblical reconciliation, and we will trust the Lord for the future. We are committed members of the GAFCON movement and remain in partnership with orthodox leaders of the Global South who are seeking to bring repentance, renewal, and reformation to the Anglican Communion.

What is tragic about all of this is not just the divisions within the Anglican Communion. What is most tragic is that because of false teaching, millions of souls will not hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, or they will hear a Gospel that appears to the be the Gospel, but in reality is contrary to the very Word of God ”“ which is no Gospel at all. Souls are at stake. Lives are at stake. Eternity is at stake. It reminds me of what the prophet Isaiah said to the people of his day: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Is.5:20, ESV)

Read and watch it all

Not long to go now until General Synod in July. The first part will involve normal business, and then the members will move into a closed session of Shared Conversations on sexuality and mission, guided by facilitators. I am not a member of General Synod and so will not be there, but I took part in the regional version of these Conversations and my report of my experience, the process and its implications can be read here.

”˜Grace and truth’ from ”˜affirming evangelicals’

In the lead-up to the Conversations, lobbying from groups on both sides of the debate has been taking place. Books and articles have been sent to members, and one such is ”˜Journeys in Grace and Truth’, from the newly formed Via Media Publications, which is a collection of essays by C of E leaders who describe themselves as evangelical but who have come to accept that same sex relationships are positive and worthy of celebration. Jayne Ozanne, who has edited the collection, has been doing a now familiar round of media interviews to promote the book and its main idea; Paul Bayes Bishop of Liverpool and the most senior ”˜evangelical’ to publicly endorse the ”˜affirming’ stance, was on the Radio 4 Sunday programme explaining why, in his view, the Church needs to change. He expressed his understanding of mission in this way:

“Since we’ve been called to be there for England as it is, how do we look at what we’ve got, in order to make it available to people who want to love God but who also want to be faithful to who they are?”

This idea that the church’s role is somehow to uncritically affirm the culture and hold out the love of God without any call to repentance is at the very least a defective view of New Testament Christianity and certainly cannot be called evangelical. But for me to say such a thing is itself the problem, according to another Bishop, Colin Fletcher who has been acting Bishop of Oxford for the past 18 months. Christian Today reports that Fletcher, who recently authorized an Oxford clergywoman to officiate at a celebration of a same sex marriage and wrote the foreward to the ”˜Grace and Truth’ book, accuses evangelicals who hold to the traditional position of causing pain to gay people. He calls for conservatives to continue to engage in conversation, and not to marginalise and write off those with a different interpretation of the Bible.
………
how can the very different opinions of Alan Wilson, Jayne Ozanne and someone like myself be held together to ensure continued unity in the church? Answering this question is the task given to the authors of a major new report from the Faith and Order Commission, approved by the House of Bishops to resource the Synodical Shared Conversations, entitled ”˜Communion and Difference’.

In his preface, the Chair of the Commission Christopher Cocksworth, Bishop of Coventry, explains that the document doesn’t attempt to resolve questions about sexual ethics (in fact it hardly refers to them at all), but serves as a reflection on “Scriptural, historical and doctrinal perspectives”, to analyse what happens when Christians disagree, and to look at possible options for continued conversation based on what is held in common. Written in careful, nuanced, academic language, the report reflects in detail on the meanings of Communion, the types of conflict in the church throughout history and in the present, and outlines some paths that might be taken towards resolution.

I will not attempt to make a full critique of the report (others better qualified than I will do that in due course). But I will say that it is very frustrating to read; although Scripture is used throughout, verses are often taken out of context
……………..
The report gives a tentative steer towards using the agreement reached over women Bishops as a model for future resolution (paras 67 and 68), ie a solution whereby change happens but there is protection and respect for those who disagree (similar to what has happened in the Episcopal Church of Scotland, perhaps?). Although the authors admit that this may result in a substantial number of people breaking communion over the issue, they feel that those who want to separate would be to blame, and would be acting like the Donatists of Augustine’s day (para 87). Rather, Christians are obligated to continue in communion with one another because of a commitment to love.

Unlike the Pilling report, this document does not openly advocate a change to the Church’s teaching and practice regarding same sex relationships, but in focusing on the priority of peace and unity at all costs and in questioning the possibility of knowing truth, it is intended to break down any resistance to incremental and inevitable change from the conservative side. It provides further evidence of the senior leadership of the Church’s complete lack of confidence in being able to articulate the key doctrines of creation, sex and marriage, the authority of Scripture and the Gospel of salvation which Anglicans claim to still espouse.

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..It seems likely that in the months to come there will be strong pressure on Evangelicals in the Church of England who are not willing to go all the way in accepting same-sex relationships to at least adopt this kind of third way approach and so in this post I want to explain why I think the three arguments for this this approach noted above are mistaken.

The reason that the first argument is mistaken is because it does not do justice to what St. John is saying in John 1:14.

For advocates of the third way approach grace is understood to mean unconditional love and acceptance and so living a life of ”˜grace and truth’ means showing unconditional love and acceptance to those with whom we disagree even while upholding the truth of our own position. In terms of the current debate about sexuality this means that Evangelicals who hold a conservative approach to sexual ethics should be willing to love and accept those who take a more liberal position.

The problem with this argument is that it fails to read John 1:14 against the background of the Old Testament. As a number of commentators have pointed out, the pairing of ”˜grace’ and truth’ in John 1:14 is a deliberate echo of the regular pairing of ”˜steadfast love’ and ”˜faithfulness’ as a description of God in Old Testament passages such as Genesis 24:27, Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 25:10. [1] God’s ”˜grace’ is his steadfast and merciful love to his oppressed and disobedient people and God’s ”˜truth’ is his faithfulness to his promises to be merciful. Both of these are manifested in Jesus, the person in whom the God of the Old Testament is incarnate, because through his death and resurrection he delivers God’s people from sin and death and thus shows God’s faithfulness to his promises and hence his truthfulness.

The relevance of this to the debate about sexuality is that sexual sin, including the sin of same-sex sexual activity, is part of the life of sin and death from which God in Christ has delivered his people (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Romans 1-8 throughout) with the corollary that such sin should no longer form part of their lives. As St. Paul puts it in Romans 6:12-14, because the grace of God means that we have died and risen with Christ:

”˜Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.’

A church, therefore, that is willing to accept same-sex sexual activity (or any other form of sexual sin) is a church that has ceased to truly believe in the grace and truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ…

Members of the Church’s decision making General Synod have been issued with a manual setting out how to discuss the fraught subject of sexuality without offending each other too much.

It comes ahead of a special series of “shared conversations” on the issue set to take place behind closed doors when the Synod meets in York next month.

“Facilitators” trained in conducting negotiations in warzones have been called in to help Anglicans resolve their differences over issues such as same-sex marriage after a similar tactic helped break the deadlock over women bishops.

Press and the public are to be banned from the three-day session in which bishops, priests and lay members with differing views and backgrounds will be asked to join in small-group discussions to speak frankly away from the glare of publicity.

The 14-page booklet, entitled “Grace and Dialogue”, amounts to an etiquette guide for the talks, advising members on everything from where to sit to body language and even facial expressions.
…………………………..
The special sessions are being organised by Canon David Porter, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of staff, who helped lay the foundations for the Northern Ireland peace process through talks with paramilitaries in the 1990s.

He said that while they might not ultimately avert a split in the church over sexuality, they might at least make it less acrimonious.

“I’ve never said that the shared conversations process should be measured on its ability to stop fracture,” he explained.

“I’ve always said that it should be measured on its ability as to even how you fracture.

“Because the reality is that throughout Christian history there have been deep issues about which we have differed at various points and it has not always been possible to maintain the unity of the church in those contexts.

“That is the history of the church, that is the reality.

“What these conversations are about is to show ”¦ that even when we disagree deeply we disagree well.”

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At next month’s General Synod, the Church of England will try a new approach to avoiding a disastrous formal schism over homosexuality. After two days of discussing legislative matters in open session and once all outsiders have left, the 550 representatives from around the world will break into groups of 20 for three days of intensive and personal discussions about sexuality.

The idea is not to reach agreement ”“ 30 years of wrangling have established that this is quite impossible ”“ but to try to bring people on both sides of the debate to see their opponents as fellow Christians. Conservative evangelicals have denounced the scheme as an attempt to manipulate opinion, which of course it is. The question is whether it will work.

What’s new about this approach is that the manipulation that Justin Welby’s strategists have in mind is not to be carried out from the top down. It is hoped that the process of facilitated conversations will allow the church’s activists gathered in the synod to take note of the social changes that are happening in their own congregations and their own families, where acceptance of gay people is becoming much more common.

This week a book of evangelical reflections on sexuality was published in which the bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, announced he had been “profoundly changed” by encounters with lesbian and gay Christians in his own family…

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A new congregation to provide an opportunity for worship, mutual support and encouragement for Christians in the LGBTI community is being launched this summer.

“There has been a need for something like this for some while” says Revd Monica Arnold. “While debate rages on, passionately, at the highest levels of the Church of England, LGBT people continue to live with the realities of their daily life and the mixed reception many receive in parishes. An opportunity to worship and enjoy fellowship without hiding or denying a fundamental aspect of their identity is so important to all aspects of healthy life.
…..
The Bishop of Wolverhampton, Rt Revd Clive Gregory warmly welcomed the initiative:

“Enabling this congregation to meet is important and I am delighted to hear of St Matthew’s offer of hospitality. I understand why LGBTI Christians feel the need for a place to meet and worship where they can feel secure and supported in their God-given sexual identity.

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..The process of appointing a new diocesan bishop is long and complex, and one of the last hurdles has now been passed in the appointment of [the] Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave as the 99th Bishop of Lichfield..

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First, we might well offer a prayer of thanksgiving that we live in a democratic society, where our vote really counts, and where we can freely and safely exercise it. A vote is a valuable commodity!
Second, we might well offer a prayer for wisdom, as we make our decision. This is the kind of decision usually delegated to Parliament alone. The referendum gives us a sense of the vital and life”“changing decisions with which we entrust our politicians, and on which we often comment from the safe distance of not having to make them ourselves. Now it is our turn.
Third, we might intercede with God that his sovereignty would reign above all other sovereignties in this knife”“edge of a vote.

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Mark is married to Sally and they have three adult children. They met in Kenya while volunteers with the Church Mission Society and have a lifelong commitment to mission.

Mark trained for ordination at Ridley Hall Cambridge after working in the catering industry in Edinburgh. Sensing a call to serve in urban areas, Mark was ordained in Manchester Diocese in 1982 and served as a curate in Burnage. Mark and Sally then went to Kenya with the Church Mission Society where Mark taught in a Theological college, later becoming the Principal. Returning to UK, Mark was appointed Rector of Christ Church Harpurhey where he served from 1996 to 2009. He was then appointed Archdeacon of Manchester. Mark’s role as Archdeacon of Manchester included being a Residentiary Canon at the Cathedral and significant involvement in Greater Manchester Churches together.

Mark said, “I am honoured and thrilled to have been appointed the next Bishop of Bolton. Greater Manchester is a fantastic place to live and serve, and I am looking forward to getting to know and love the communities and churches of Rossendale, Salford, Bury, Bolton and parts of Wigan for which I will have particular responsibility as Bishop of Bolton.

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In 2001 the churches in Europe jointly and boldly pronounced in Charta Oecumenica a support for a process destined to bring Europe closer together. Churches in the same document stated that “without common values, unity cannot endure.” Now, 15 years later, we find ourselves in a situation in which increasingly vocal political parties and groupings argue against further political and economic integration on our continent. What seemed a logical position 15 years ago seems less evident today. Rather, we see a growing body of opinion that has lost faith in the promise of a united Europe, that distrusts political elites, and that would like to renationalise policies….

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